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Windows 7: Boot from a different drive on a new computer

Hi, I just bought an HP Envy Desktop, 3.40GHz 4th Generation Intel Core i7-4770, 12GB RAM, 2.0TB HDD (700-019 PC) . . . it came with Windows 8 which I just checked out and found it wasn't as hostile as people say (and it comes with Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements (albeit scaled down versions).

However, I didn't buy this computer for the operating system since I'd been preparing a SDD drive with Windows 7 Home Premium. I thought I would just be able to swap drives - no such luck.

The HP Bios is a new design to me: at the top it says "Hewlett-Packard Setup Utility". I couldn't figure it out. Both drives showed up under Device Configuration and I was able to chose the SSD drive, but it keeps booting into Windows 8.

The installed Windows 8 drive is a Basic GPT, the Windows 7 is a Basic MBR.

2) If Using a USB Pen drive on a PC with a UEFI BIOS.
USB Pen drive need to be formatted to FAT32 as in UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows
Take note of Step 11 for Windows 7.
Also you will need to use a USB 2.0 port, as there are no USB 3.0 drivers in Windows 7.

But you will find that HP do not support drivers for Windows 7 on PC's Pre-installed with Windows 8.

1. Copy your windows 7 SYSTEM hive into a .zip file and post it up here for me to adjust, else win7 is unlikely to boot on different hardware. You will find the file called SYSTEM in your ssd windows\system32\config directory.

2. You need to do step 1 in Theos post.

3. You may need some specific drivers for that HP machine. If it a desktop machine, that is less likely to be an issue.

4. You need a win7 license which allows you to use it on the new machine. Unless your desktop came with win8 PRO ,then you are allowed to upgrade to win7.

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